1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to shopping over a computer network and, more particularly, to shopping over the Internet where shoppers purchase products for other people and online stores recommend one or more products that match with needs and tastes of the recipients by collecting and analyzing data about the recipients"" navigation of online stores and other Web sites in the Internet.
2. Background Description
Commerce over networks, particularly e-commerce over the Internet, has increased significantly over the past few years. Part of e-commerce enables users/customers to access information of products and to purchase them from various commercial Web sites (i.e., online stores). There are numerous online stores currently operating in the Internet including. Amazon.com, eToys.com, Buy.com, Wal-Mart.com, LLBean.com, and Macys.com. These online stores provide various customer services to make commerce activities possible and easier over Web sites. Some of the examples of the basic services are catalogs of merchandise which are both browsable and searchable by various product attributes (e.g., keyword, name, manufacturer, and model number), online shopping carts, and checkout process. Some online stores also provide advanced customer services such as wish lists, gift registries, calendars, custom-configuration of products, buyer""s groups, chatting, e-mail notification, and in-context sales.
A wish list is a shopping tool available in a number of online stores including Amazon.com, EddieBauer.com and Sears.com. A shopper can create a wish list in an online store and record information on products he or she wants to buy from the store in the list. The store keeps the product information for a definite period of time, e.g., a year. The shopper can access the list anytime and make one or more transactions for purchasing one or more products stored in the list. Some online stores such as Amazon.com extend their online shopping cart service to provide the wish list capability to some degree. However, such shopping carts store the product information for a shorter period of time, e.g., ninety days. A wish list helps its user purchase a bundle of products at a time from an online store. Also, a wish list helps other people such as friends and family of its user purchase one or more products that match with needs and tastes of the wish list user by referring to information stored in the wish list, as seen in Macys.com""s Bridal Registry program which is a variation of a wish list service.
This invention presents a new shopping tool called a virtual wish list that overcomes several limitations in using (actual) wish lists, and extends the prior art""s functions in a significant way. Unlike actual wish lists, the virtual wish list tool does not require the users to register to online stores for the service. Also, it does not require the users to add products to buy to their wish lists. In addition, it does not limit the product selection to ones that are sold or provided in one particular online store. Instead, it automatically creates and maintains information of products the users are interested in by observing shoppers""s visits to product Web pages in different online stores. Furthermore, the tool can help shopping for multiple products and multiple people at a time and selecting a list of products optimized for various constraints such as budget and product preferences. This invention describes how such virtual wish lists of shoppers can be created and used.
3. Problems with the Prior Art
A wish list service of the prior art requires the users to register to the online store that provides the service. Registration to an online store is often tedious and error-prone process. Furthermore, if a user wants to maintain multiple wish lists in different online stores, the person needs to register multiple times to those online stores.
A wish list service of the prior art requires the users to add one or more products they wish to buy to the list. If a shopper does not actually add a product to his or her wish list, the shopper does not have a record of the product in his or her wish list, even though he or she is interested in buying this particular product.
A wish list service of the prior art limits the selection of products that can be added to the wish lists to ones sold or provided in the online store that provides the service. This limitation on product selection sometimes enforces shoppers to create multiple wish lists in different online stores. For example, a shopper may need a wish list for books, and another wish list for shoes. Maintaining multiple wish lists is often difficult and tedious task for online shoppers. The requirement of multiple store registration adds more difficulty to the task.
A wish list service of the prior art does not help select a list of products optimized for various constraints such as budget and product preferences. In fact, a wish list service of the prior art does not even allow to specify any constraint regarding shopping at all.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an improved system and method for shopping for products over a network.
An object of this invention is to provide an improved system and method for shopping for products over a network that provides virtual wish lists while not requiring the users to register to online stores for using the service.
A further object of this invention is to provide an improved system and method for shopping for products over a network that provides virtual wish lists while not requiring the users to register to online stores for using the service, and not requiring the users to add products to buy to their wish lists.
Yet another object of this invention is to provide an improved system and method for shopping for products over a network that provides virtual wish lists while not requiring the users to register to online stores for using the service, not requiring the users to add products to buy to their wish lists, and not limiting the product selection to ones that are sold or provided in one particular online store.
Another object of this invention is to provide an improved system and method for shopping for products over a network that provides virtual wish lists while not requiring the users to register to online stores for using the service, not requiring the users to add products to buy to their wish lists, not limiting the product selection to ones that are sold or provided in one particular online store, and at the same time, automatically creating and maintaining information of products the users are interested in.
Still another object of this invention is to provide an improved system and method for shopping for products over a network that provides virtual wish lists while not requiring the users to register to online stores for using the service, not requiring the users to add products to buy to their wish lists, not limiting the product selection to ones that are sold or provided in one particular online store, and at the same time, automatically creating and maintaining information of products the users are interested in a single wish list, not multiple wish lists.
Yet a further object of this invention is to provide an improved system and method for shopping for products over a network that provides virtual wish lists while not requiring the users to register to online stores for using the service, not requiring the users to add products to buy to their wish lists, not limiting the product selection to ones that are sold or provided in one particular online store, at the same time, automatically creating and maintaining information of products the users are interested in a single wish list, not multiple wish lists, and helping shopping for multiple products and multiple people whose virtual wish lists are available.
Another object of this invention is to provide an improved system and method for shopping for products over a network that provides virtual wish lists while not requiring the users to register to online stores for using the service, not requiring the users to add products to buy to their wish lists, not limiting the product selection to ones that are sold or provided in one particular online store, at the same time, automatically creating and maintaining information of products the users are interested in a single wish list, not multiple wish lists, helping shopping for multiple products and multiple people whose virtual wish lists are available, and helping selecting a list of products optimized for various constraints such as budget and product preferences.
According to the invention, there is provided a computer system for using one or more virtual wish lists of one or more shoppers over one or more networks. The system comprises one or more central processing units (CPUs), one or more memories, and one or more network interfaces to one or more networks. One or more recipient list generating processes extract information about one or more people from one or more online address books and/or other personal database systems, and create one or more lists of people for whom the shopper wants to purchase one or more products. One or more recipient list updating processes receive one or more recipient lists from one or more shoppers, and modify them if necessary to reflect data stored in one or more actual wish lists, and/or to reflect merchandising efforts of one or more online store. One or more shopping list generating processes receive one or more virtual wish lists of one or more product recipients, and create one or more shopping lists for the product recipients. One or more virtual wish list retrieval processes receive one or more product recipient lists from one or more shoppers or one or more online stores, and retrieve and search for virtual wish lists for the product recipients from one or more databases. One or more recommended product list generating processes receive one or more recipient lists, one or more virtual wish lists, and one or more shopping lists from one or more shoppers, one or more online stores, and one or more virtual wish list retrieval processes, and create one or more recommended product lists. One or more virtual list use approval request processes ask a shopper of the use of the shopper""s virtual wish list by other shoppers, one or more online stores, and one or more other Web sites. One or more virtual list use approval processes allows the owner of a virtual wish list to modify the virtual wish list if necessary and to selectively approve the use of the virtual wish list by other shoppers, one or more online stores, and one or more other Web sites.
The invention also provides a method for using virtual wish lists over a computer network. One or more recipient lists are created from one or more online address books and/or personal databases. One or more recipient lists are sent to one or more online stores and/or other Web sites over one or more computer network interfaces. One or more recipient lists are updated, if necessary, to reflect data stored in one or more actual wish lists and/or to reflect the merchandising efforts of one or more online stores. One or more owners of virtual wish lists are asked if they approve the use of their virtual wish lists by one or more other shoppers, online stores, and other Web sites. One or more approvals and disapprovals are received from the virtual wish lists owners on the use of their virtual wish lists. Virtual wish lists for one or more recipients specified in one or more recipient lists are retrieved and/or searched for. One or more shopping lists are created by merging one or more recipient lists and one or more virtual wish lists retrieved for the recipient lists. One or more shopping lists are received over one or more computer network interfaces. One or more lists of recommended products are created for one or more received shopping lists. One or more recommended products are placed into one or more online shopping carts. One or more transactions are completed for recommended products.